Boot Param: floppy=thinkpad

["Ryan King" <rking@duke-energy.com>]

I'm trying to install Debian on an IBM Thinkpad 755C, and was having
trouble with the floppy drive during the installation.  (It does fine until
time to install the drivers, and then all I get "/dev/fd0: Device not
configured").

When I `mount -t (ext2|msdos|dos|*) /dev/fd0 /mnt`,
I get:
"mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device"

(I tried mounting the Rescue disk, and then a spare disk, and then I tried
mke2fs'ing the floppy then mounting, and they all did the same thing).
Which leads me to the main problem (I think)

While looking for the docs on mounting a floppy (I'm (obviously) a
Linux-newbie), I ran across some info suggesting using floppy=thinkpad at
the boot prompt, and it sounded relevant. However, when I try to enter it
at the "boot:" prompt, it errors with:
"Could not find kernel image: floppy=t.hin",

and, apparently it gives a "floppy=x.xxx" message when it's not a valid
param anyway, because "floppy=ryan" gives me:
"Could not find kernel image: floppy=r.yan".

I'd love any help, or (at this point), any ridicule that will point me in
the vaguely right direction.

-Ryan